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Beginner's Guidelast updated 4.29.2005Warning: This was created before the "Combat Upgrade" I may have to revise it to reflect the changes New charactersStarting location How to make money How to gain skills How to fly (JTL) Communication with players Choosing a faction Choosing a guild Setting down a house Where to find help Ok. You just bought the game (unless you are on the free trial account). And the chances are, you don't know where to begin. I was in the same boat. I didn't know anybody who played this game (or any other massively multiplayer online role-playing game MMO). I got started playing and read the guide that game with the game. It provided some of the very basics about the game, but didn't offer tips or advice on what to do. This guide is intended to get someone who has never played Star Wars Galaxies or any game like it, and get them on a good start to accomplishing your goal of character-building and interaction with other players. NEW CHARACTERSWhen you begin the game, you first must create a new character. This involves choosing the server (galaxy) and the character's attributes: species, sex, appearance, starting profession, name, and starting location. (And the pilot profession and location if you have Jump to Lightspeed).Before you create a new character, you may first want to think about what profession you want to do. The species are given different bonuses to their skills. Here is a quick summary of each species and their species-specific skill bonuses: Human - Leadership +10 (unknown skillset)
Bothan -
Ithorian -
Mon Calamari -
Rodian -
Sullustan -
Trandoshan -
Twi'lek -
Wookiee - *this command allows wookiees to use the /warcry command which can intimidate a cone (frontal area) of multiple enemies at once.
Zabrak - If you have a particular profession in mind, then you may want to choose the species that gives a little extra bonus to it. It is possible to get skilltapes, clothing or armor attachments to get the same values of skills as a player with the species bonus, but it is easier to get it with your species. Ok now you have a character, you have a little money and a few items. You will definitely want more credits (money), skills, and items (if you want to be effective in your professions). This is a role-playing game at it's heart so think about what you want your character to do. The starting professions are required to advance you to the elite professions. Some elite professions require specific skill branches from more than one starting profession (these are called hybrid professions). Some elite professions only require one branch of a starting professions, while others require you to master a starting profession. To get a graphical picture of this, refer to your skillsheet in-game (Ctrl-S) or check out my web version here. I have grouped the professions into their general types. Below I will explain each grouping Crafting professions:
Artisan Business professions:
Artisan
Combat professions:
Combat/tweaking profession:
Wilderness professions:
Healing professions:
Political profession:
Pilot professions:
Jedi:
Crafting
CraftingJust about every item in the game is crafted by another player (the only exception are looted items, generated by the game itself). Almost always, you will get higher quality items when they are crafted by other players. So crafters are essential to the game. I have some experience in crafting, and it isn't for everyone. You need patience, and persistance to stay in crafting. You also have to be able to handle other player's requests for items--especially if you advertise your crafting skills or want to go into business. It helps to take pride in what you are making. I was able to extend my crafting, by adding in some combat professions for variety.
Business (artisan/merchant)If you are crafting, you should consider mastering merchant as well. This will let you expand and promote your crafting business. The discounts in the merchant profession are very enticing. (especially the reduced structure maintenance cost). I hold on to merchant 0003 skill in order to use a vendor in my house for storage.
CombatOk most (if not all) of you will want to do some combat. This is your main source of excitement in the game (aside from pilot/jedi). If you do not have some basic combat skills, you will have a hard time surviving out there. There are hostile creatures and non-player characters even if you are peaceful. So consider taking up some combat skills unless if you plan to stay in the cities all of the time. I must admit, that swordsman is my favorite combat profession so far.
Combat/tweaking - SmugglerAll right, a smuggler is a unique kind of profession. You can do some combat, but you have the ability to "slice" things. That is to tweak things to get a favorable result. Han Solo definitely tweaked out the Millenium Falcon, so you have the ability, as a master smuggler to get armor, weapons, and terminals to get their stats in your favor. You can make some decent money slicing items. You should consider hooking up with a crafter to setup a deal.
Wilderness (scout/ranger/creature handler)As mentioned, it is a dangerous galaxy. There are all kinds of critters out there. Scouts, Rangers, and Creature Handlers are the only ones who can harvest creature resources. Crafters need creature resources (especially chefs, medics, doctors, combat medics, bio-engineers, and tailors). They are often willing to pay handsomely for these resources. Also as a wilderness expert, you are pretty self sufficient and can give benefits to a group when you go out hunting.
HealingEverybody will take some damage. Almost all of us will die and need some healing. You can decide whether you want to be the one to heal others (as well as yourself) and prepare us to take on some challenges. Medics and above also can craft pharmaceutical items that keep players alive and well. The Combat Medic has a unique ability to be a deadly combatant, and he or she can choose to heal as well.
Policital (politician)In the game, we are given the opportunity to run our own cities. The politician is the one who can be the mayor of a new or existing city and change the city options and govern a player city. You must be able to ineract with many different people and do the politican thing. (try to please everybody, and make people feel good about what you are doing).
PilotThese professions finally allow players to fly in "STAR" wars. I encourage everyone to shell out the extra $20 or so to be able to fly. (you should get a joystick to). Flying is one of the main parts that makes star wars, star wars. Now flying has become one of the good ways to make some money. You can sell looted components from a chassis dealer. (they are inside some starports). Not only does space combat give you some extra money, but you are not reliant upon starport shuttles to travel from planet to planet. Get yourself a non-starter ship and you can travel from starport to starport rapidly. The only time I use the starport shuttles is when I was moving all of my ships to one location. If you have JTL you can ride with other players in multiplayer ships (luxury yacht, nova cruiser, yt 1300, decimator).
JediSo do you want a lightsaber and force powers? Who doesn't? Be warned, to get that far you have to go through a LOT. First you must get some decent combat abilities, and be prepared to gather tons of XP. Once you think you are ready to start jedi, see what it takes to become glowy. If you are starting out and want to be a Jedi, any character can become one. I suggest that you should have some combat professions under your belt. It also helps to have a lot of support. You will need help in combat when you progress through the Jedi trials.Now those of you who argue that allowing anybody to a Jedi isn't realistic...I hate to break it to you, but this is a game based upon movies--it is all made up. STARTING LOCATIONOnce you know what species (along with physical attributes), and a starting profession, then you can go through the tutorial (before you character joins the galaxy) or skip and choose a starting location. Your starting position may vary if you have Jump to Lightspeed enabled. If you do have it enabled, you will choose a starting pilot profession and a starting location for a particular squadron. The three pilot types have different squadrons for each type. You will begin in a starport city with a pilot trainer. Your pilot trainer will give you easy missions and a starter ship at no cost. The difficulty of your missions will progress as you complete the missions. If you intend to to pilot first, you will be traveling from the starport to your pilot trainer often. At first, you will be given a waypoint and an arrow path to your trainer. Right away you will learn how to move around in the city and use waypoints.Waypoints are highlighted sections of the map (usally a blue glowing beacon that extends from the ground to the sky). You should see arrows on your screen pointing to the activated waypoint (you can turn this off). Be sure to check out your radar in the lower left screen. Your datapad has a waypoint tab which lists all of your saved waypoints. You can save as many waypoints in your datapad as you want. There is a filter that will only show waypoints in your current planet or sector. To make a new waypoint, type /waypoint x y. X is your position east or west and Y is the position north or south. These numbers can be negative, zero or positive. Negative numbers must be preceded by a dash "-" or minus symbol. You used to be able to just type /way (or /waypoint) and a new waypoint would be created at your current location -- this is now bugged (as in it doesn't work). Another tool to aid in navigation is the overhead map. (Ctrl-M). You can see your current location with a triangle. The map moves as you move around. If you are in a city and go inside a building, the view will change to just the interior of the building. The same happens when you go inside a cave or a large installation. It will show multiple levels at once, so try not to get confused. Keep exploring and you will figure them out. You can turn off the map at any time by pressing Ctrl-M again. Pay attention to the different colors of dots on your radar and on the overhead map. Blue dots are other players that are neutral or enemy faction. Purple dots are other players on your faction side (rebel or imperial). A pink dot is your group leader. Green dots are other group members. Yellow dots are creatures or NPCs who you are able to attack, but they are not aggressive. Red dots are aggressive creatures or NPCs or overt players of the enemy faction (only if you are overt). You should be wary of red dots--especially when you begin as a new character. Also be aware of yellow dots also. If you attack yellow dots, they may turn red and group against you. HOW TO MAKE MONEYCompleting missions are your primary source of income. This is essential for new players. Look for mission terminals inside cities. There are regular mission terminals which have delivery or destroy missions. I suggest destroy missions for anybody who is doing a combat profession. Delivery missions just ask you to travel and talk to NPCs. A destroy mission will give you some much needed XP along with your credit rewards. If you have scout skill, you should only do destroy missions on creatures. You can harvest creature resources from the corpses by clicking on them and holding down the mouse and choosing harvest resources and choose the options available. (hide, meat or bones).----------------------- Where to find help: Online: Star Wars Galaxies Official Forums: http://forums.station.sony.com/swg. Sony Online Entertainment Knowledge Base: http://www.station.sony.com/kb. |